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A form, time (it isn't fast), and a nominal filing fee (requests are mostly processed by humans, especially on old documents)

You may be disappointed though. When FOIA came about, plenty of "activists" requested their files, swelling with pride thinking of all the things that must be in there- only to find just one entry:

03/07/2012: Submitted FOIA request for personal file

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What about files which the government won't admit the existence of? For example, what will someone on the no-fly list see when they submit a FOIA for their files?

They'll receive a Glomar response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_response

I received one of these when I submitted FOIA on myself.

FOIA is really just a way to make people think they get access to data about them or important things. Most FOIA's about real topics get flat-out denied or the govt pretends to not have anything about the subject.

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